Strategy in Crisis

Strategy is in crisis. Many companies have lost the art of truly effective strategy-making, they've relegated strategy down the agenda, turned inward to process re-engineering or given up trying to meaningfully plan their future direction. They have become responsive to the forces of change instead of being proactive and trying to master and even shape them. When companies have turned to strategy, they've been badly let down. Current strategy tools are out-of-date and proving inadequate, invented often in the 1970s or 1980s, they're out-ot-touch with the late 1990s' competitive environment. The new era of global competition has changed the game.

Through detailed case studies and empirical testing, a new approach to revitalise strategy is set out — the Market Commitment Model. It provides a practical and easy to apply framework. It shows companies how to develop a long-term vision and develop the necessary commitment to see it through. It describes how to become so immersed with customers that it is possible to anticipate new opportunities ahead of the game. It demonstrates how to find and develop the specific and sometimes new sources of competitive advantage that will drive growth and success.

1. The lost art of strategy
• The importance of strategy on the CEO's agenda
• The demise of corporate planning
• Problems with the re-engineering obsession
• Poor strategy leads to failure
• Summary
2. What is strategy?
• The elements of strategy
3. The rules of the game have changed
• Power has shifted to the customer
• Scale is not necessarily an advantage
• Borders and boundaries have collapsed
• Technology is ever more quickly copied
• Other changing market circumstances
• Summary
4. The inadequacies of existing strategy models
• The Boston matrix
• PIMS
• Port's five forces and three generic strategies
• Core competencies
• Parenting
• The three value disciplines
5. Introduction to the market commitment model
• The first dimension: commitment
• The second dimension: four prime axes
• Price
• Emotion
• Performance
• Service hustle
• Addendum
6. Commitment: the long-term view
• Take a minimum 5- to 10-year view of market opportunities
• Set clear measurable targets
• 'Stick with it'
• Focus
7. Commitment: market immersion
• Case study: Marks & Spencer
• Case study: McDonald's
• The triple-I model
• Case study: Yamaha
• Innovation and R&D
• Case study: Sweet 'n Low
• Summary
• Case study: Ferrero
8. The relative commitment audit
• Measurement and audit
• The relative commitment audit: key questions
• Case study: Procter & Gamble
9. Competitive advantage through performance
• The basics remain critical
• The performance goalposts are moving
• The revolution in performance has started
• Summary
• Case study: Toshiba
10. Competitive advantage through service hustle
• Measure the right thing
• It's not just serving it's keeping
• Getting the right customers
• Case study: BET
• Doing it
• The third dimension of service hustle
11. Competitive advantage through pricing
• Inadequate strategy tools
• Poor organisation of pricing responsibility
• The right information not available
• 'Pricing is outside our control'
• The third dimension of pricing
12. Competitive advantage through emotion
• case study: Citicorp
• Where E is left to marketing rather than integrated as mainstream
• It can take a long time
• Case study: Daewoo
• Case study: Direct Line
• The investment may be substantial
• Payback is uncertain
• The organisation may lack the experience
• The communication channels are fragmenting
• The third dimension of emotion
13. A toolkit
• Market and customer immersion
• Identifying advantages
• Segmentation
• Summarise the competitive situation
• Sustainability
• Trends
• Organisation gaps
• Looking to the future
• Stakes in the ground
• Exploitation
• Case study: IBM
• Case study: Amazon.com
• Case study: Blue Circle
• Case study: A. T. Kearney
• Addendum
14. Building a more effective strategy development process
• Separate from annual budgeting
• The proper information must be available
• Key questions to be asked
• Involve a cross-section of people
• Who should do what
• With what frequency
• With what skills — the role of corporate planning
15. Making it happen
• Sharing the strategy
• Sharing the values
• Symbolic egalitarianism and information sharing
• Training
• Sharing the benefits
• Effective empowerment
• Adequate measurement system
• Solving organisation complexity
• Summary
• Addendum

Yet another model for strategy work. Leaves you untouched.